On Liberty John Stuart Mill Batoche Books

104/John Stuart Millthough the order itself exists for the collective power and importance ofits members.It is not, also, to be forgotten, that the absorption of all the principalability of the country into the governing body is fatal, sooner or later, tothe mental activity and progressiveness of the body itself. Banded togetheras they are—working a system which, like all systems, necessarilyproceeds in a great measure by fixed rules—the official body areunder the constant temptation of sinking into indolent routine, or, if theynow and then desert that mill-horse round, of rushing into some halfexaminedcrudity which has struck the fancy of some leading memberof the corps; and the sole check to these closely allied, though seeminglyopposite, tendencies, the only stimulus which can keep the ability of thebody itself up to a high standard, is liability to the watchful criticism ofequal ability outside the body. It is indispensable, therefore, that themeans should exist, independently of the government, of forming suchability, and furnishing it with the opportunities and experience necessaryfor a correct judgment of great practical affairs. If we would possesspermanently a skilful and efficient body of functionaries—aboveall, a body able to originate and willing to adopt improvements; if wewould not have our bureaucracy degenerate into a pedantocracy, thisbody must not engross all the occupations which form and cultivate thefaculties required for the government of mankind.To determine the point at which evils, so formidable to human freedomand advancement, begin, or rather at which they begin to predominateover the benefits attending the collective application of the force ofsociety, under its recognised chiefs, for the removal of the obstacleswhich stand in the way of its well-being; to secure as much of the advantagesof centralised power and intelligence as can be had withoutturning into governmental channels too great a proportion of the generalactivity—is one of the most difficult and complicated questions in theart of government. It is, in a great measure, a question of detail, inwhich many and various considerations must be kept in view, and noabsolute rule can be laid down. But I believe that the practical principlein which safety resides, the ideal to be kept in view, the standard bywhich to test all arrangements intended for overcoming the difficulty,may be conveyed in these words: the greatest dissemination of powerconsistent with efficiency; but the greatest possible centralisation of information,and diffusion of it from the centre. Thus, in municipal administration,there would be, as in the New England States, a very minute